Gibbs wins runoff for House seat

Karl Gibbs defeated Eddie Longstreet in Tuesday's runoff election for the Mississippi House of Representative District 36 seat vacated by the death of Gibbs' father in January.

Gibbs, D-West Point, received 746 votes, 57 percent of the total, to defeat Longstreet, who had narrowly made the runoff in March's primary election. Gibbs had 184 votes more than Longstreet in that election, but did not have the majority required to take the seat outright at the time.

Longstreet, also of West Point, had 557 votes Tuesday.

Gibbs' father had served as the district's House representative since the district, which includes parts of Clay, Lowndes and Monroe counties, was formed in 1993. David Gibbs died after a brief illness on Jan. 13 at the age of 76.